The Sound of a Battle
by SnapTobiume10
Summary: "My father once told me that life is a war, with battles to be either won, or lost." Darcy is deaf, and Sif never expected to meet a girl quite like her. Written off a Tumblr prompt.


_AN- "Imagine Person A is deaf, but has surgery and hears Person B's voice for the first time." This prompt, it almost made me cry at the thought. So, I decided, Sif and Darcy needed something like that. There is nowhere near enough Sif and Darcy out there. So, enjoy!_

_~SnapTobiume_

* * *

When I had first met Darcy, I had never expected the girl that I had come in contact with. I met her briefly, while Thor was exiled, and then when he returned to Earth for Jane Foster, it was a real first meeting. She was cute, I would have been the first to admit that. But something hadn't sat right with me, right from the first few moments. As the four of us, Thor, Jane, Darcy, and Myself, sat at a corner table in a local diner, she would watch whomever was speaking with the greatest attention to detail. Her bright, dazzling blue eyes would remain completely focused, and she would barely even blink until a person was finished speaking. And she was quiet too. Jane would often state that Darcy Lewis thought something, that her input was this, or that. But it was a long while before I had heard her speak. It was when Thor and Jane went off towards somewhere, just the two of them, that I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I watched her, for a few moments, and when she didn't say very much, tried to ignore me completely, that I began a sequence of events that even the greatest battles of Asgard could not have prepared me for.

"So, I'm not sure if we were properly introduced." I said to her. She still had her back to me, and I could feel my eyebrow twitch slightly. If there was one thing I absolutely could not stand, it was being ignored. "Excuse me, Darcy Lewis, I am the Lady Sif, one of Thor's closest friends, Goddess of War." I had reached out, touching her shoulder, and it caused her to whirl around, slightly startled.

"I... I'm sorry." She spoke slowly, with a slur to her words that was slightly odd, especially to my ears. And yet, I had heard it before. "I can't... I didn't hear... You." She moved her hands, as if she was talking with them, and I realized exactly where I had heard such speech before, in my years. I braced myself on the counter, swallowing with the realization.

"You're deaf, aren't you." I whispered, my back against the support that would ground everything I was, if I was wrong, if my guess was wrong. She nodded a little bit.

"Yes. For my entire life." She moved her hands, signing the words even as she tried to speak as normally as possible. "There's an operation, but..."

"Fear." I finished for her. "You're afraid something will change." Darcy smiled a little bit, nodding.

"Everything always has. Never for the better."

"Not usually, you mean. Things can always look up." I offered to her, in an attempt to make the grim begining fade at least a little bit. "So, how do you know what the others are saying?"

"I read their lips." She paused. "I get things wrong, but logic is useful in those cases."

"So you guess?" Darcy nodded, before she turned back towards the computer she was using, one that I didn't really even want to acknowledge, the technology was so different than that in Asgard. "Are you usually correct?" Darcy paused, removing one hand to sign with it.

"Close enough." I paused again, simply watching her for a few minutes, before she turned back around. "I can feel you staring at me."

"I... Um... Sorry."

"See? Everything becomes awkward." She had turned away again, her voice small as she voiced what she had taken my actions to mean. I immediately felt positively awful, and even slightly angry. But not at Darcy; only at myself. I reached forward, securing an arm around her waist, forcing her to turn around. She really was something, this mortal girl. "Sif-" I clasped her hand, turning it palm up in my own.

"Can you teach me this? So that maybe we can communicate... Better?" I knew I had covered enough of her questions, that she wouldn't need to ask why. The I had already given her a reason, even if it was only for better communication.

"I suppose." She paused a moment, looking at her hand, clasped in mine. "No one else has ever tried before."

"There is a first for everything, Darcy. Give me a chance." I wouldn't have believed it, especially not at the time, but I was already falling in love with a mortal deaf girl. She nodded, her smile small. If there was a better way to spend the next few days while Jane and Thor were away, I couldn't have found it. It was our fourth day together when Darcy rested her hand on mine.

"_You learn quickly."_ She told me, hands moving instead of her lips. I smirked, pushing a lock of dark hair behind the end of slightly dorky glasses, by mortal standards.

"_I have a great teacher."_ I replied, in the same manner. She smiled, and it was almost contagious. I paused briefly. "_I feel like I understand you."_

_"Thank you. For trying. No one else really does."_

_"Not a problem. Thank you for a chance."_ She smiled again, and I reached out, touching her shoulder. "_How many others know?"_

_"Jane. Erik. My parents." Sh_e paused for a few moments. "_I caught a lot of shit for it in school. Its not something you normally tell people. Not if you want to fit in."_

_"I don't see anything different about you. You can't hear. Neither can warriors sustaining injury from battle." _Darcy smiled, showing a perfectly white line of teeth. I was enjoying the time spent in her company more and more. It was just us, alone, with nothing to hide, nothing to prove to anyone else. She was mine, in a fashion, I felt. Mine to protect, to listen for. In a way, I was frightened of this prospect. But in another, I was overjoyed._  
_

"_You just compared me to a great warrior." _I could almost imagine the sarcasm in her tone, smirking slightly.

"My father once told me," I told her, signing the words, but feeling it necessary to speak them as well. "That life is the war, and its pieces were simply battles, to be both won and lost." Darcy blushed, when she held up a hand.

"Sif, I-"

"Hey guys! We're back!" I flinched at the female voice, interrupting whatever it was that my friend had been about to say. "However, we are planning to head out for a movie at the nearby AMC. Its a moving picture type of deal, in a theater. Entertainment." Darcy had turned, to watch her friend speak.

"Dost though wish to accompany us to this journey of fantastic ideals?" Thor all but shouted. I found myself questioning both of them. They were in such a love- sick haze, completely devoted to one another at every single moment.

"I shall have to pass." I stated, in much the same fashion. But then again, who was I to question them? I was acting in the exact same way. Fully devoted, unconditionally. Despite the consequences.

"Me too. Sorry guys." I rested one hand back against the counter as she spoke, watching her form the words, waiting for the astounded reaction from her best friend. There was none. Jane Foster just shrugged, giving the okay as she sprinted into the back before running towards the bathroom. Thor stepped up beside me.

"Is there something thou is not telling me, Lady Sif? Are we not companions, brother and sister in arms?" He growled, trying to remain quiet. I tilted my head to the side, pinning my sword hand behind my back as I locked eyes with the Asgardian.

"What dost thou refer to, Thor? It is thee who acts strangely, waiting upon the human, hand and foot." He paused, before drawing back.

"Perhaps I am. But so art thou. I don't know exactly what it is, just yet. But I will get to the bottom of this." I recognized the challenge in his words, and I would have risen to it, should Jane not have come out at that exact moment. And for once, I was glad to see them head out together. Rolling my eyes to the ceiling, I exhaled a long breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding. Darcy's hand touched my elbow.

"He cares. About you." I nodded, though it was with sadness.

"_I know. He thinks that something is different. And perhaps he is right?"_ Darcy just smiled, shrugging, before opening the cabinet. I paused behind her, one hand resting on her spine as we stared into the nearly empty closet. "_We go through a lot of food."_ I signed against her arm. She smirked.

"_Well if you weren't always hungry, it wouldn't be as big a problem."_ I couldn't help but laugh, as she wiggled away from my hand, grabbing her wallet off the kitchen table, heading for the door. It was only around two in the afternoon, and still bright out as I followed her out, into the contraptions that the mortals used in order to get around. We stopped at a large building that was frequented by our entire party often enough, for they sold a grand amount of food. Wearing one of Darcy's shirts that had always been just a bit big on her, and a pair of leggings with my own boots, I seemed to actually fit in. The zip- up hoodie that I was borrowing was a bit short, but it hid both swords that I carried, and refused to leave the apartment without. Our shopping trip was relatively uneventful, and we were carrying the bags back inside before I had sorted out half of the thoughts I even so much as wanted to acknowledge, let alone all of the others. "I envy Jane." Darcy said after a long while, where she had been staring at the stove, not touching anything for a good amount of time.

"Why?" I asked, rising from the seat I had pulled into the kitchen at one point, as we had learned on the first day I was a pretty terrible mess in the kitchen.

"She's so pretty. Everyone likes her." She paused, as I braced an arm against the side of the counter, confused. "_Look at how quickly she got a boyfriend? Why can't that ever be me? Why doesn't anyone like me, for me?" _I reached around, grasping her wrist at the same time as her waist, pushing her flush against the counter, careful of the stove.

"I like you." She paused, twisting her wrist in my grasp, and I let go, yet couldn't walk away.

_"Fear."_ She signed the word, and I nodded. She rose a hand to my shoulder, and I trapped it there, conscious to be gentle. "Me too." Her fingers tangled in my hair, and my free arm found its way around her waist, pulling her in closer as we kissed. It was gentle, nothing fancy, more of an exploration than anything else. We were brief the first time, staying close together, foreheads touching. She was shorter than I was, something I had only subconsciously known until now. It wasn't a large height difference, and for that I was grateful. Darcy tilted her head again, and the tip of her tongue brushed my lip in a fleeting gesture, I had kissed other people, both men and women, taken others to bed, in Asgard. But it was different then, as illogical as it sounds. Being there, in a kitchen, with Darcy, was nothing I had planned to experience. It was not like Asgard, with strict courting rituals, and laws. It was natural, pure. "Sif-"

"Lets go out. I don't know where to take thee, so I'll need help, but-" Darcy smiled, that brilliant, contagious smile. There was a loud crack outside, and I jumped, drawing two blades and hooking them together in the same movement that put Darcy just behind my shoulder. Her hands crept their way around my waist, locking there.

"_Fireworks."_ She moved, pressing closer, until her chin could rest on my shoulder. If I turned, I could see humor dazing around her eyes, silently amused by the confusion that I'm sure was painted all over my form.

"Its a warrior thing." I defended, and she laughed, a slightly strange sound. She released my waist, giving me a shove towards the chair as she turned back to the stove, shutting down the burners. With two massive mugs of stew, she led me outside, across to the fire pit, folded blanket under one arm. Laying it out, she watched amused as I flinched at every crackle in the sky, seated closely beside her.

"_They're back."_ She signed against my thigh, and I tilted my head, able to hear Jane's laughter not too far away, in the direction of where she stayed, in the apartment. I stretched out, lying down with one arm still looped around her hips, and she smirked before resting her head on my shoulder. Fire glittered in the sky for awhile, crackling as if thunder, before one of her hands crept onto my ribs. _"You make me feel like such a girl._" It was a confession, and I worried for a few moments.

"_Is that bad?" _Darcy pushed herself up on one arm, leaning down and we were joined again, one of her hands tangling into the long tresses of my hair. Within a few moments of our tongues becoming well acquainted with one another, I withdrew slowly. "I'm going to take that as a no." She nodded, and I could have sworn she was blushing, at least lightly. It wasn't until nearly another unbearably slow two weeks had gone by when I realized something vital. I trusted this frail, mortal being with more of my life than she could ever imagine. And I understood why Thor was so adamant about bringing Jane back to Asgard with us.

"Hey." Darcy called out, snapping her fingers to get my attention. _"Where did you go, Sif? Your brain walked_."

"_Just thinking. Sorry."_ She smirked, as I moved the leg I had crossed over my other, so she could straddle my waist. The others didn't know about us, or if they did, then they were keeping their mouths shut. However, I was almost completely certain that they absolutely did not know. Unlike Thor, and Jane, we were going just a bit slower with our relationship, figuring things out, taking the time to understand one another. Which we did. For the majority of the time, we only had to think something, and the other would understand. Like then, with Darcy comfortable on my lap. Her arms were braced over the back of the chair we were on, and she looked conflicted. "Whatever it is, I'm listening now. I promise."

"How long are you staying?" She asked, her voice low. I paused a moment, considering the answer.

"As long as you need._"_ She blushed, biting her lip lightly. I was content to wait, until she had found the words. Sometimes it was longer than others, and now was one of those times, yet I was, for once, content enough to simply sit still, to hold her. I may even have ventured far enough to say I had fallen worse than Thor had. But then again, my girlfriend did not hit me with a car a few times. She leaned forward, mouths catching in a long, sensual kiss, drawing back when we were both panting slightly.

"I'm going to go for surgery." She whispered, those same brilliant blue eyes boring into mine.

"_You don't have to change for me."_ I signed against her shoulders, relishing the shiver that it sent up her spine.

"I know. Its not that. I don't... want to be normal." She exhaled, and a ran my fingers over her back, urging her to keep speaking. She pulled back a bit, biting down on her lip again. "_I'm dating a God, I don't need normal."_ Another pause, but shorter. "_I want to make you scream my name, Sif. And I want to be able to hear it."_ A flush was creeping up her neck when I moved, supporting her back as we kissed with more force this time, tasting, giving, claiming. She rested her forehead against mine again, clutching at my neck like it was for her life. Slipping one hand up under her shirt, she arched slightly, fingers tracing slightly defined ribs. "Sif." She moaned, and I all but pushed her down to the floor at that very moment. Instead, I grasped her just a bit tighter, crushing the mortal form into my own. I could see the sassy comments about a God being crazy when it came to sex, boiling just under the bright blue of her eyes. "I want you to be the first person I hear, Sif." She whispered, rising up on her knees, trying to get closer.

"I'd be honored." I whispered, mouth pressed up against her skin. She pulled my hair, pulling my chin up until we were kissing again. It wasn't the first time I had felt every inch of skin on Darcy's chest, and I was confident enough that it wouldn't be the last, hips grinding against one another in a search for friction.

"We should stop."She whispered, breathy.

"We should." She breathed in, and we kissed gently, trying to peel ourselves away from one another. "_When's the appointment?"_ I finally asked, as soon as I had freed a hand.

"_A week."_ She answered. And a damned long, anxious week it was. By the end of it, I was sitting still enough in Darcy's hospital room to frighten a statue into running for cover. Thor was trying not to fidget, as Jane was laying against his shoulder. They were each awake, yet bored out of their minds. Thor had tried questioning me, to find all of the answers to the clear change in my behavior, but in simplest terms, I was having none of that shit. When they had finally wheeled Darcy in, got her settled and everything, I took one of her hands, Jane stepping around the mattress for her other. As soon as our skin touched though, it was as if she was coming around already, my fingers tracing the lines of her wrist.

"Sif?" She mumbled, still drowsy from the anesthetic.

"Welcome back, Darcy." The flash of recognition in her eyes was priceless, beautiful. I couldn't adequately explain the feeling in words. "How do you feel?" She pulled her hand from Jane's, tangling her fingers into my hair, like typical Darcy, and I was pulled down, trapping the other hand in the curve of my neck as if it was exactly like the first time we had kissed.

"I can hear now." She laughed out, tangling her hands into my long, dark hair.

"Imagine that!" But her laughter was already contagious, and I couldn't keep a similar smile from my lips. If the others said anything, I wasn't paying enough attention, and I'm certain that Darcy wasn't either, because we turned around and they were both just gone. And despite the mild confusion at such a disappearance, I pulled a chair as close to the mattress as I could, her hand resting on my forearm.

"Sif?"

"Yes Darcy?" I answered her, in a quiet tone, reaching over to stroke her hair out of her face. She was supposed to be sleeping, resting up from the surgery, especially since it had proven to be successful at least immediately.

"Can you tell me a story?" She breathed out, and I smiled, leaning forward to kiss her forehead.

"This is the story of how life is a war, with battles that can either be won, or lost. This particular tale surrounds the life of a young human girl, who fought two battles at once; and won them both." Darcy smiled, squeezing her hand in mine, settling back into the pillows. "When the alien warrior first met such a girl, she had never expected the girl that she had come in contact with..."


End file.
